


Paradox

by orphan_account



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-09
Updated: 2016-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-25 18:17:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6205630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steven and Rose have an impossible conversation</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paradox

**Author's Note:**

> Steven is in his early-20s in a post-Redemption timeline

Steven skidded backwards as the energy blast impacted his shield. He looked back behind him to make sure the others were safe.

Except they weren't behind him anymore. Neither, in fact, was the Temple Core Room he was supposed to be in. Instead, there were trees. Thick, tall maple trees, with the greenest leaves and brownest trunks Steven had ever seen, forming an outer perimeter to a small, circular clearing with a twenty-meter radius. He looked down. The cold stone floor of the Core Room was also gone, and replaced with rich, green grass, punctuated with the occasional white or yellow or red flower. Steven shivered - he had grown used to how the Temple liked to perfectly render things, but there was something mildly unsettling about how ideal some simulations looked. Perfect plants, in particular, resonated with him in a bad, uncanny-valley way.

Steven turned back around, and nearly jumped. In front of him stood a copy of Rose, also bearing a shield, also looking surprised to be there.

Steven had, a couple of times, attempted to ask Rose's room to make him a copy of Rose, so that he may talk to her. But he was disappointed to find that the Rose he summoned was only a puppet at best, fuzzy at the edges and made of clouds. It only repeated things that he had seen Rose say and do in the VHS tapes he had managed to find over the years. The clone - and, as Pearl later explained, the Temple as a whole - couldn't say or do anything new. If it was asked to do something, it could only use the pieces you had from within your own mind.

This version of Rose, however, looked stunningly good. Steven could see every curl of the large mass of pink hair that he had dreamed of losing himself in when he was younger. The face that he had only seen on a blurry CRT, in faded Polaroids, and a single oil painting, looked so _real_ in front of him. Her shield, which she had summoned and held in front of her, was identical to his, as was the pink gem embedded in her belly. "Big" was a word Pearl and Greg used to describe Rose, but that always felt somewhat inappropriate. Jasper, who filled every room that she was in, was big. Rose... wasn't. He could never find the word for this, but there was an elegance to the volume that she took up. Even now, as she stood a good two feet taller than him, Steven saw her as graceful, not imposing.

"Who are you, human, and how are you summoning my weapon?" The clone asked.

Steven opened his mouth to answer, but stopped. He had never heard Rose say that. And, suddenly, as if a veil had been lifted from his eyes, he saw how singed sections of her dress were, the grime from doing service on mechanical parts, how her hair was shaped oddly, as if it was blown sideways in a gust of wind. _No, that wasn't possible._

Steven's shield vanished in a burst of color and sound. Slowly, he lifted his shirt, revealing his gem. "Mom?" he asked, his voice cracking.

Rose gasped, her jaw dropping in a mixture of surprise and confusion. "No," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "No, this isn't- you're not- you _can't_."

In a single motion, Rose put away her shield and ran towards Steven. She engulfed Steven in the single most comfortable and satisfying hug he had ever experienced. Rose disengaged from the hug, holding Steven at arm's length, his feet about six inches above the ground. "You're real," she whispered, tears starting to appear at the corners of her impossibly black eyes. "It _worked_."

* * *

After a few minutes of hugging and laughing and crying, Rose finally set Steven down and they sat together, with Rose leaning against one arm and Steven nestled in between the arm and her body. "I have so many questions," she said, and her voice was what Steven imagined angels sounded like.

"I do too," he said. "For starters, how are we here? I was with the others, helping to fix the Temple core."

Rose nodded. "As was I. Were you protecting the others from an energy surge when the Core rebooted?"

"Yeah, how did you know that?"

Rose smiled. "I was doing the same. Coming into contact with raw metaphysical energy will often result in an temporary simulation. The Core is a four-dimensional object, so it must have linked your surge and mine together, since we have the same Gem. We should be fine," Rose said, probably noticing the worry that came over Steven's face. "The simulation will eventually run out of energy and we'll return to reality."

"Oh," Steven said. There was a silence between them. Not an awkward one, but one that was loaded with unspoken questions.

"I'm sorry," Rose said suddenly, her forehead creasing with worry. "I just... don't know where to begin."

"Why don't I start?" Steven suggested. "I can tell you about me and Dad and the others."

Rose smiled. "I'd love that."

And Steven launched into his history, from when he was born, through living with Greg while they built the house ("Oh, you built a house? That's lovely!"), Steven moving in with the Gems, and the evolution of his powers over the past ten years since the first time he summoned his shield. Rose, for her part, alternated between rapt attention and squealing like Connie when a good part of a movie came on. She was practically sobbing when Steven got to their kidnapping and the reveal of Garnet's true nature. By the time Steven finished telling how Jasper and Lapis joined their team, the tears of joy had transitioned to tears of laughter.

"A _Jasper_?" Rose said, wiping a tear from her eye, "Oh, Pearl must have been furious. She could never stand them, even when we were with the Diamonds."

Steven smiled. "Yeah, they don't get along. But they tolerate each other. Pearl mostly works with Peridot. Amethyst and Lapis like being silly, and Garnet and Jasper like punching things. We're all starting to work together really well now."

Rose beamed at her son. "That's so good. I'm so proud of you." She pulled Steven in for another hug. Over Rose's shoulder, Steven could see that the outer parts of the forest was fading away, like a fog rolling in before dawn. The collapse must be happening slowly, instead of all at once. Rose pulled away, but this time Steven saw something else in her face. It wasn't sadness, but it was similar. "Are you okay?"

Rose looked down at her lap and sighed. "One of Amethyst's human friends," Rose said, not looking up at Steven, "Vidalia, I believe her name is, had a child a few years ago. That was around the time your father and I started discussing having children of our own." Rose trailed off for a moment before collecting herself.

"Anyway, we realized that for this to work, I would need to give up my physical form. Which meant I could never have the relationship Vidalia had with her son."

Steven was silent for a moment. "Were you jealous?"

Rose nodded. "Immensely. And it was such an ugly, horrible feeling. I hated it. I wanted so badly to be able to have that relationship with you. But it would be beyond impossible. It consumed me for a few months, and I started to pull a little away from Greg and the others. I didn't... want him to see me like that." Rose was kneading the fabric of her dress with her hands as she said this.

Then Rose looked up, and she suddenly looked incredibly exhausted. "But I'm old, Steven. Even by Gem standards, I'm old. I've seen so much, experienced so much, but even I have my limits. You've seen the bubbled Gems in the Temple, and how hostile Homeworld still is to us after all of these centuries. I spent all of my time on Earth trying to solve those problems, and I couldn't- I can't."

Rose took Steven's hands into her own. Steven was amazed at how big and soft they were, even to him. He wondered how huge they would have been to his when he was a baby. "You exist," Rose continued, " _b_ _ecause_ I had reached my limit. Gems have a specific, defined purpose, and as much as we can try, we are limited by that design. No amount of rebellion could free us from how we were made. But humans are different. Your biology gives you so much potential. You, Steven, can do what I never could, because you aren't limited by your Gem, but augmented by it. And that is why Greg and I had you."

Steven nodded. These were confirmations of suspicions and guesses he had derived from talking with Greg and Pearl. It felt... comforting, to hear it from the source.

Steven suddenly noticed that the trees were nearly gone. They were almost out of time. "Steven," Rose said, as tears began to fall down her face, "I'm so proud of you and wish with all of my heart that I could be with you and have watched you grown up. And I'm so happy for all the others. It sounds like they've come so far. You've already changed so many lives. "

By this point the fog was only a couple meters from their feet. Rose stood up, pulling Steven with her, and embraced him one last time. "I love you so much," Rose whispered.

"I love you too, Mom." Steven said, and closed his eyes as the fog consumed them both, and the simulation collapsed.

**Author's Note:**

> Headcannon: Rose had Steven because she needed to, both for Greg and for herself.
> 
> Also, Steven will come to terms with this and still love his mother. He might have to do some soul searching, but he'll get there.


End file.
